‘Reacher’ Just Hit a Turning Point With That Abrupt Exit and It Could Reshape the Hero’s Next Chapter

Jack Reacher’s arguably the closest thing to a modern day action hero, thanks to Alan Ritchson‘s performance as the former military man turned drifter in Reacher and the books by Lee Child that detail Reacher’s adventures. Ritchson isn’t even the first person to step into Reacher’s boots; Tom Cruise played the character in a pair of films that received a mixed reception yet is still managing to top the streaming charts. Reacher’s world is about to undergo its biggest upheaval yet, as Lee Child is fully stepping away from the character.

Child made the announcement during the release of the latest Jack Reacher book, Exit Strategy. “My entire ambition was to give the character away,” he told USA Today. Even though Child has fully retired from writing, he’s passed on the Reacher novels to his younger brother Andrew, who fully wrote Exit Strategy and its predecessor, The Sentinel. This doesn’t answer the lingering question on fans’s minds; what will happen to the Reacher series?

Andrew Child’s Had Practice Writing Jack Reacher

Alan Ritchson as Reacher hiding behind a tombstone as a funeral falls under attackImage via Prime Video

The obvious advantage that Andrew Child has in writing future Jack Reacher novels is that he’s been with the series since its inception. While Andrew’s only written a pair of books, he was the first to read the manuscript for Reacher’s debut adventure, Killing Floor (which is the basis for Season 1 of Reacher) and refers to Reacher as his “invisible brother.” This also let him make changes to the novel that make sense, including keeping Reacher’s dialogue short and to the point while also steering the character away from his anti-technology streak. These changes don’t just make sense, they also help to modernize Reacher while drawing in new fans.

The most important aspect of the shift was to keep the spirit of Reacher intact, as Andrew said the character is what keeps the fans coming back:

“Our goal was to make the change as seamless as possible…We have this idea that really the author isn’t important in this situation. It’s the character that is the important thing. We want people going to the bookstore to buy the new Reacher, not the new Child, Lee or Andrew.”

Plenty of long-running book series have seen massive changes over time, with James Patterson completing Michael Crichton‘s final novel Eruption and Brandon Sanderson stepping in to finish Robert Jordan‘s The Wheel of Time (which itself would inspire another Prime Video series). In both cases, the authors had a previous rapport, and understood how each other worked. Had Lee Child handed the Jack Reacher novels over to a random author, they could have lost their secret sauce. Instead, he’s given it to someone who knows the character inside and out.

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Could ‘Reacher’ Go Beyond the Book Series for Original Stories? Author Lee Child Weighs In

“I trust the writers.”

‘Reacher’ Still Has Plenty of Material to Draw From in Future Seasons

While some fans might be worried that Reacher will be affected by Lee Child’s retirement, the series will more than likely continue going strong. Counting Exit Strategy and The Sentinel, there’s 30 Jack Reacher novels which gives Reacher plenty of material to draw from. Each season of Reacher also adapts a different novel in the series, with the upcoming Season 4 taking its cues from the highly popular Gone Tomorrow. There’s also the upcoming Neagley spinoff, which will focus on Reacher’s friend and former soldier Frances Neagley (Maria Sten), though the recent shakeups at Paramount call its future into question.

Prime Video also has a bonafide hit on its hands with Reacher. The series solidifed the streamer’s niche for “dad TV”, aka shows with procedrual-esque plots and highly skilled protagonists. It’s even seen success with different book adaptations, including John Krasinski’s Jack Ryan (which is returning for a feature film) and Titus Welliver’s Bosch (which spawned its own major franchise). Simply put, Reacher is in good hands and Lee Child is happy to be retired. “I had a great run, a quarter of a century essentially, and that is beyond anybody’s wildest dreams. So I’m quite happy to sit back and say, yeah, now somebody else can have the fun,” he said.

Release Date

February 3, 2022

Network

Prime Video

Showrunner

Nick Santora

Directors

Omar Madha, Carol Banker, Julian Holmes, Lin Oeding, M.J. Bassett, Norberto Barba, Stephen Surjik, Thomas Vincent

Writers

Cait Duffy